innovation

Australia seems to have a thing for playing hockey with 9 players instead of 11. Can’t say I’m a big fan of these experiments. IMHO we’ve got two formats of the game : 11v11 and 6v6 or indoor hockey. These should do… The traditionalists will favour the 11v11 game. This is the Olympic sport we […]

We’ve had quite a lot of “innovation” – just another fancy word for change :) – these last years in our favourite game of hockey. Some of these rule changes were not a big hit. Think for example the own goal rule¹. But several were instrumental in making our game better. Think self-pass² or being […]

The Hockey Revolution has begun! And because I consider myself a typical product of European hockey culture I’m torn between tradition and innovation. Afraid to see our beloved traditional club culture diminish and at the same time excited to see new possibilities for the game I love. But… as Julius Caesar would say “Alea iacta […]

It’s Money time for hockey… 2017 will prove to be an important year for decisions that will change our game of hockey. Last month I wrote about the changes decided by the FIH in my blog “Sport or Entertainment“. Although we will not see all of the effects of these changes in the year to come, […]

“Panem et circenses” is the original Latin expression from back in the Roman era that will loosely translate into “Bread and Games”. It refers to politicians using diversion instead of actual accomplishments to keep the people happy. And it can ‘t be denied a lot of sports have evolved more towards fulfilling entertainment goals than […]

It’s almost EHL time again, a strange tournament if you compare it for example to the Australian AHL or the Indian HIL. Inherent to our European culture it is a tournament where the best of the best want to excel, but… where we will also give opportunities to offer a taste of “the real thing” to […]

Remember the kickstarter project we talked about some 2 years ago? Click here for that article… Well the guys from The Field Hockey Game thought it was time to talk about their progress so far… I am sure over the years nearly every single person reading this piece has played a console sports game. Most […]

The European Hockey League, so it seems, is once again at some kind of cross roads. This years edition, like all others before, was once again played in The Netherlands. At Bloemendaal, the legendary club of players like Floris-Jan Bovelander and Teun de Nooijer. But also one of those clubs thriving on good old fashioned […]

Belgian hockey is on the rise… no doubt about it. A better national competition is the foundation for it all. The introduction of some quality foreign players several years ago gave a quality injection. Better funding of the national teams has been another game changer for Belgian hockey. Allowing for top coaches, better training facilities, […]

Everybody following international tophockey was very excited last year with the birth of the Hero Hockey India League (HIL) in India. A completely new concept for our sport based upon the immensely successful IPL in cricket. The concept is simple: 6 professional teams attached to a city or region all over India teams owned by […]

People don’t like change… hockeypeople are no different. Allthough… sometimes we seem to be the exception to the rule. Our sport has proven to be very innovative and not scared to change the rules to improve the game… and to abandon these changes if they do not work out. I love this! Let me suggest […]